Rare 1983 Apple Commercial

Software maker Andy Hertzfeld yesterday posted a very old Apple commercial that never aired. It’s a fascinating blast from the past.

The commercial, in which Hertzfeld himself appears, was made by Apple’s longtime ad agency Chiat-Day to promote the Macintosh in 1983, in advance of its release the following February. It features several decidedly nerdy-looking (seriously, check out the shaggy ‘dos, gigantic glasses, and pimp mustaches) members of the Mac design team — including Burrell Smith, George Crow, Bill Atkinson, and Mike Murray — talking up their sense of achievement with the creation of the Macintosh.

The commercial never aired on television because upon its completion, Apple deemed it “too self-congratulatory.” But they still made use of it in some promotional materials they sent to Macintosh dealers. It’s a rare insight into Apple history, from a time long before the Infinite Loop campus, before Steve Jobs was given the boot, and before the birth of any product that begins with the letter “i.”

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